Online Language Arts Games Highlights Free Gift with Newsletter Sign-Up Do you receive our free newsletters? We send out seasonal content tie-ins, topical resources, and daily activities. And now when you sign up for any TeacherVision newsletter, we'll send you a packet of our most popular back-to-school essentials as a free gift! Read for the Record Take part in the world's largest shared reading experience with Jumpstart's Read for the Record this October 22! This year's book is Not Norman: A Goldfish Story. October Calendar of Events October is full of events that you can incorporate into your standard curriculum. Bullying Prevention Month October is Bullying Prevention Month, and it's a crucial topic for teachers and administrators to address. Halloween Happy Halloween!
Texas, Textbooks and Truth It seems at least once a month we read a news story about dubious education practices that spawn national outrage. This week’s news featured pages from a geography textbook that identified Africans forced into the horrific transatlantic slave trade as “workers” and “immigrants.” Here’s the story: 15-year-old Coby Burren took a picture of a fishy page from the textbook and sent it to his mother, a former teacher and current Ph.D. student, with a text message: “[W]e was real hard workers, wasn’t we ☹.” Before talking about all that is wrong here, I’d like to point out two aspects of this story that should hearten us all. First, it shows that speaking up sometimes can effect change. Second, Dean-Burren raised her son right. As for the problems here, they’re complex and deep, and they go far beyond the Texas suburb where Coby attends school, and beyond McGraw-Hill, the company that publishes the textbook. We included the recorded use of that word in the film.
Rewriting History—for the Better Illustration by Julie Flett It was pure coincidence that, during a recent trip to Northern California’s wine country, Kevin Gover, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., stumbled upon a perfect illustration of what’s wrong with history instruction in the United States. He and his wife were visiting an original Spanish mission at the same time as a group of fourth-graders. Gover watched as teachers and chaperones dressed as Franciscan friars led the children, who were dressed as Indians, through a series of quaint activities. “They were making candles. They were spinning wool, weaving baskets. This kind of Eurocentric approach to American history will come as no surprise to many educators who work from scripted U.S. history curricula. To address this, Gover and his team at the Smithsonian are gearing up to unveil a program called Native Knowledge 360, a nationwide curriculum initiative to make comprehensive Indian education a priority.
“What’s ‘Colorism’?” Illustration by Alex Eben Meyer When I began teaching in Boston, I was struck by how often students of color referred to each other as “light-skinned” or “dark-skinned.” Almost daily, I witnessed high school students identify, categorize and stereotype their peers based on skin tone. Any response to this question is complicated due to the deep legacy and influence of skin-color preference in the United States and in other parts of the world. It makes sense that teenagers—who are working out their own identities on a day-to-day basis—also engage in color-conscious discourse. Research Shows … Skin-color bias affects perceptions and interactions in ways that are at once subtle and profound. A more modern example of research on colorism comes from Eddie Fergus, an assistant professor of education at New York University who conducted a study on Latino high school males. Fergus’ findings are not unique. Why Care About Colorism? What relevance do these studies hold for educators?
Inside Stanford Business School’s Spiraling Sex Scandal The prestigious school’s sexual-harassment policies proved to be no match for a litigious love triangle involving the dean and two married professors. When, in November 2013, Stanford University held one of its seminars on sexual harassment, Professor James A. Phills, of the Graduate School of Business, heard a lawyer from the general counsel’s office describe a romance gone sour at a primate-research center. A scientist (“Ed”) kicked his former paramour (“Melissa”) off a project involving monkeys, then slashed her bonus 80 percent, all because she refused to bleep him back at the hotel. Such a problem, the lawyer declared, could never arise at Stanford. “If the person who is involved is a dean, you should go straight to the provost,” the lawyer replied. “That would probably pose a real problem,” the lawyer replied. He might, Phills replied. “And your expectation would be that the provost or the general counsel, if something like this were to happen, Stanford would be concerned?”
Is “Donors Choose” Right for Our Schools? By Eric Braun On September 11, 2015, the major television networks—ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX—simultaneously broadcast Think It Up, a celebrity-loaded telethon to raise money for public education in the United States. Put on by the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), the show featured more celebrities than an issue of People magazine, including Justin Bieber, Stephen Colbert, Gwyneth Paltrow, Seth Meyers, Kristen Bell, Scarlett Johansson, Kacey Musgraves, Taylor Lautner, Joe Manganiello, Matthew McConaughey, Jeremy Renner, and Jessica Williams. A lavish, entertaining show. But some educators say there is a problem here. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a mortal wound. It feels good to give to a worthy cause, and it’s gratifying to scroll through the Donors Choose site and see all the interesting projects being funded. What do you think? Eric Braun is a Minneapolis-based writer and editor. We welcome your comments and suggestions. © 2015 by Free Spirit Publishing. Like this:
Teaching Leadership Skills Using Digital Platforms By Mariam G. MacGregor, author of Building Everyday Leadership in All Teens Like most things, the best way to learn a skill is to apply it immediately. Truth is, we all feel more comfortable having opportunities to learn a bit about the skill, practice the skill, and if all goes as planned, receive some kind of feedback about our success in applying that skill. Teaching leadership skills is no different. My experience has shown that interactive initiatives are effective in teaching leadership to teens for a few reasons. With digital platforms for collaborative learning in grades K–12 on the rise, students are increasingly completing class projects using Google Docs, PowerPoint, and Prezi. A recently released decade-long study of the digital lives of teens conducted by the Pew Research Center indicates that teenagers’ social lives are thriving online. Another great tool is Storybird (free), a visual storytelling platform that was started by an editor previously with HarperCollins.
Creating Community in the Classroom By Kelly Huegel, author of GLBTQ I am the author of a survival guide for GLBTQ kids, so it makes sense that I would address the bullying of GLBTQ students. But in contemplating this topic once again, it is difficult for me to tease out the subgroup of students who are (or are perceived to be) gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning from all objects of bullying writ large. This is because, in the end, I think bullying is more about the perpetrator than the target, and I think bullying is more of a societal epidemic than a school-based one. The other day, I was driving with my wife and new baby in our suburban Maryland town when a pickup truck crossed traffic in front of us. Today’s teachers have a rough time combatting bullying in their classrooms when everywhere students go, they bear witness to adults bullying one another. Actor and teacher Maria Broom has embarked on a mission to combat bullying by engendering compassion in the classroom. © 2015 by Free Spirit Publishing.
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